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Abbott says much work to be done on NDIS

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the coalition supports Labor's planned National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) but the question of how it will be funded is still to be resolved.

Mr Abbott told a conference of National Disability Services chief executives in Sydney on Monday he was confident the scheme would eventually become reality and restated the coalition's commitment to helping people with disabilities.

"That will continue and improve should we have the opportunity to govern this country again," he said.

Mr Abbott told delegates that MPs on both sides of politics wanted an NDIS to happen.

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"We know where it will end, we aren't quite certain how every step is to be taken," he said.

"There is much work to be done to work with the states."

The leader nominated service delivery and the structure of the NDIS as key issues.

"Yes, there are important questions of funding that are yet to be resolved," he said.

"But this is a vital journey ... and a journey on which we are all agreed the destination."

Mr Abbott did not directly pledge coalition funding for the scheme.

But he told the conference his next annual Pollie Pedal charity ride would again raise money for Carers Australia.

Mr Abbott referred to his "cauliflower ears" saying they were not just the product of too many scrums.

"They are at least in part the result of the way Carers Australia had chewed my ear so consistently on the need for a better deal for people with disabilities," he said.